ISC Launches First Publicly Accessible Certificate Service Supporting ECC

Information Security Corporation (ISC) today launched a public Certificate Authority service that allows Internet users to easily obtain X.509 certificates. For a nominal fee, the ISC Silver E-Mail Subscriber CA (SESCA) will issue an RSA, DSA, or an elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) certificate to any individual who provides a verifiable e-mail address. Certificates and CRLs issued by SESCA are maintained in a publicly accessible LDAP repository powered by ISC CertAgent software.

Deerfield, IL (PRWEB) December 13, 2003 --Information Security Corporation (ISC) today launched a public Certificate Authority service that allows Internet users to easily obtain X.509 certificates. For a nominal fee, the ISC Silver E-Mail Subscriber CA (SESCA) will issue an RSA, DSA, or an elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) certificate to any individual who provides a verifiable e-mail address. Certificates and CRLs issued by SESCA are maintained in a publicly accessible LDAP repository powered by ISC CertAgent software.

Our entire product line has included support for elliptic curve cryptography for a number of years," said Thomas J. Venn, ISC President. With NSAs recent $25 million investment in ECC technology and their sanctioning of the use of ECC to protect classified data within DoD, ISC expects to see increasing demand for ECC certificates from its customer base. Our new CA service will encourage more widespread use of the ECC-dependent features in our products."

Certificates obtained from ISCs SESCA ensure confidentiality, authentication, and data integrity when used with an ISC product like SecretAgent or SpyProof!, as well as with any third party X.509-compliant application. ISC commercial customers have already begun to accept the SESCA root certificate as a trust anchor for secure messaging and file exchange with their external business partners. Developers can incorporate ISCs Cryptographic Development Kit into their own applications and use SESCA certificates to PKI-enable them.

Intended for use by the general public, SESCA bases its certificate enrollment process on e-mail address validation. While providing relatively low assurance, such a process has become the standard basis of trust for most of todays e-commerce between parties previously unknown to one another (e.g., on eBay). Enterprises demanding a higher level of assurance can run their own CertAgent site using a stricter enrollment process. Virtually any conceivable enrollment scheme can be accommodated. Also available for CertAgent are optional modules that perform hardware-based key generation and encryption key escrowing services.

Pricing and Availability
Renewable X.509 certificates with a one year validity period are available from ISC SESCA at
an initial cost of US$10/year. To obtain a certificate, or to learn more about ISCs certificate services or CertAgent software, visit http://www.infoseccorp.com.

About Information Security Corporation
Founded in 1989, ISC is a leading developer of affordable encryption and authentication software designed around well-established cryptographic standards. The most security-conscious government agencies and corporations worldwide have adopted ISC products.

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Contact Information
Andy McDermott, Vice President of Sales
Information Security Corporation
(847) 405-0500
amcdermott@infoseccorp.com

©2003 Information Security Corporation. All rights reserved. SecretAgent and SpyProof! are registered trademarks, and CertAgent is a trademark, of Information Security Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.